How to Price a Kitchen Fitting Job in the UK

To price a kitchen fitting job, survey the room, define exactly what you will install, calculate the labour time, add materials and specialist trades, then check that the selling price covers overheads and profit. Cabinet counts help you organise the calculation, but they are not a substitute for pricing the whole job.

The expensive omissions are often outside the cabinets themselves: strip-out, awkward access, worktop cut-outs, appliance connections, finishing details and return visits. An itemised quotation makes those costs visible to you and clarifies what the customer is buying.

1. Survey the Kitchen Before You Set a Price

Start with the latest kitchen plan and an on-site survey. Confirm whether the job is a straightforward replacement in an existing layout or involves alterations to the room and services.

Check the following before deciding how many days to allow:

• Units and fittings: Count base, wall, tall and corner cabinets. Note drawers, pull-out mechanisms, integrated appliance doors, fillers, end panels, plinths and handles. Confirm whether cabinets arrive rigid or flat-packed.
• Drawings and measurements: Check the supplier's drawing revision against the actual room dimensions, openings, ceiling height, wall positions and floor levels. Check door swings and appliance clearances.
• Worktops: Record material, lengths, joints, sink and hob cut-outs, edging and any finishing or sealing required.
• Existing services: Locate the water, waste, electrical and gas connections. A sink or hob moving a short distance can still change the scope significantly.
• Condition: Assess visible walls, floors and fixing backgrounds. Record inaccessible areas, suspected damp, damaged plaster or other issues that need investigation.
• Access and deliveries: Allow for parking, stairs, carrying distances, storage, unloading and waste removal. Agree who checks deliveries for shortages or damage.
• Occupied properties: Confirm working hours, protection of retained flooring, dust controls and daily clear-up arrangements.

Take photographs and record what you could not inspect. Do not price concealed problems as though you already know the work required; identify any necessary investigation and explain how additional work would be agreed.

2. Calculate Kitchen Fitting Labour by Task and Time

Use cabinet counts as a starting point

Group the units by type and estimate the fitting time for each. A simple rigid base cabinet is not the same job as a tall housing, awkward corner unit or flat-pack cabinet with multiple internal fittings.

Include setting out, levelling, fixing, hanging and adjusting doors, fitting drawers and aligning integrated appliance doors where those tasks are part of your cabinet allowance. Price assembly separately if your base fitting rate does not include it.

A practical internal worksheet might look like this:

If you price a task in one row, do not quietly charge for the same task again in another.

Check the per-unit figure against your day rate

Kitchen fitting cost per unit can be useful for estimating, but only when you know what the price includes. Checkatrade's 2026 kitchen fitting guide gives approximately £120 per cabinet as a consumer-facing benchmark and a kitchen fitter day-rate range of £250–£350. These are broad guide figures, not a recommended rate for your business or a promise about a particular job.

For your own price, estimate the days first and compare them with the required labour selling rate. For example, a £1,680 cabinet-fitting allowance spread across four fitting days equals £420 per day before VAT for that task. That figure needs to make sense for your costs, skills and local market. It does not also pay for removal, worktops and finishing unless you included those activities in the four days and the price.

Flat-pack kitchens, islands, uneven walls and unfamiliar systems may need more time than a simple cabinet count suggests. Review your completed jobs to improve future allowances.

3. Price the Work Around the Units

A kitchen quotation should make the following costs explicit where they apply.

Removal, protection and waste

Identify what will be disconnected and removed: old units, worktops, appliances, tiles or other finishes. Arrange safe service disconnections by the appropriate trades before strip-out. Price lifting and carrying, surface protection, skip or collection costs, packaging and final cleaning.

Waste from fitting work is business waste. Check the applicable GOV.UK business-waste duties, including carrier registration, authorised disposal and waste-transfer paperwork. Rules and regulators differ across the UK, so verify the arrangements for the nation where you work.

Worktops and finishing

For laminate worktops, allow for lengths, joints, edging, sink and hob cut-outs and sealing. Timber may need extra preparation or finishing. For stone, quartz or granite, obtain a specialist quote covering templating, manufacture, fitting and any return visit required for sink or hob connections.

Price end panels, fillers, plinths, cornices, pelmets, handles and final alignment according to the actual schedule. Difficult scribing and out-of-square corners can consume more time than the number of cabinets implies.

Plumbing, electrics and gas

Obtain written subcontractor prices against the drawing and a defined scope. Agree whether plumbing includes isolating and removing the existing sink, moving pipework, connecting a dishwasher and testing the new connections. Separate minor reconnections from substantial alterations.

For electrical work, identify appliance connections, socket or lighting alterations, testing and the paperwork required. Electrical work must be carried out competently and comply with the relevant rules. Notification requirements depend on the work and UK nation; in England, for example, a new circuit or consumer-unit replacement is generally notifiable, whereas simply connecting a built-in cooker to a suitable existing circuit is not automatically notifiable. See Approved Document P and confirm the job's requirements with the electrician.

Gas work must be carried out by a Gas Safe registered engineer qualified for the specific work. If a gas hob needs removing or reconnecting, include that service explicitly rather than assuming the cabinet fitter will do it.

Finally, state whether plaster repairs, tiling, flooring, splashbacks and decorating are included. These are easy for a customer to assume are part of a “new kitchen” unless your quotation says otherwise.

4. Labour-Only vs Supply-and-Fit Quotations

The first question is who supplies the kitchen. This affects price, responsibility and cash flow.

A labour-only installation might exclude everything except fitting. A customer-supplied kitchen quotation can be broader: it may include removal, waste, consumables and separately arranged plumbing or electrical work. Label the scope accurately rather than calling every customer-supplied job “labour only”.

If you supply the kitchen, include procurement time, transport, delivery, any appropriate materials markup and your contractual responsibilities. If the customer supplies it, document who checks the order, what needs to be on site before you start and how additional attendance will be agreed if parts are missing.

Do not assume a missing part automatically entitles you to a return-visit fee. The reason for the delay, your agreed terms and whether the visit repeats work already included all matter.

5. Build Overheads and Profit Into Your Kitchen Fitter Pricing

Your labour selling rate must cover more than the hours you personally spend fitting. Account for insurance, van and fuel, tools, software, accountancy, administration, quoting time, holidays and gaps between jobs, as well as the income and business profit you need.

For example, if your business needs £51,000 a year in labour revenue to cover those requirements and you expect 170 billable days, the minimum average recovery is £300 per billable day before VAT (£51,000 ÷ 170). These are illustrative figures, not a market rate. A job that uses five full days of your time needs to be checked against that requirement even if its unit-based price looks competitive.

Markup and margin are different. Buying materials for £100 and adding 20% markup gives a selling price of £120, which is a margin of about 16.7% before other costs. To achieve a 20% margin on that same £100 cost base, the selling price would be £125. Work from the full cost you need to recover; a markup on parts is not automatically net profit.

Price known complications directly. For genuinely uncertain work, set out what is assumed and how a variation would be assessed. Avoid adding a contingency and then charging for the same known risk again elsewhere.

For VAT, ordinary kitchen fitting in an existing home is generally standard-rated when supplied by a VAT-registered business. The standard VAT rate is 20%, but some building work qualifies for different treatment. If you are not VAT-registered, do not add VAT to your sales price; include VAT you cannot recover on your purchases when calculating costs.

6. Worked Kitchen Fitting Quotation Example

The following fictional kitchen fitting quotation illustrates the pricing structure, not a typical or guaranteed UK price. The customer supplies 12 rigid cabinets (for example, seven base, four wall and one tall unit), laminate worktops, sink, tap and compatible electric appliances. The layout and service positions remain substantially unchanged.

The amounts below are selling prices excluding VAT. They assume each line has been priced to recover the relevant labour, agreed subcontractor and job costs, coordination and intended business return. Do not treat the subcontractor lines as unmarked-up supplier invoices unless that is how you have deliberately priced them.

Assumptions and customer-supplied items

The price assumes reasonable ground-floor access, suitable wall fixings and floor conditions, an installation-ready room, and no structural changes. The customer supplies the complete, compatible kitchen order: cabinets, doors, drawers, internal fittings, handles, panels, fillers, plinths, laminate worktops, sink, tap and appliances. They must be available before the agreed start, subject to the delivery responsibilities recorded in the quotation.

Plumbing: The illustrative allowance covers safe isolation and disconnection of the existing sink, reconnection of the replacement sink and tap in existing positions, connection of a specified dishwasher to suitable existing water and waste connections, and checks on those connections. It excludes pipework relocation and repairs to defective existing services.

Electrics: The illustrative allowance covers safe isolation and disconnection of existing electric cooking appliances, connection of compatible replacements to suitable existing circuits, and the necessary testing and records. It excludes new circuits, additional sockets, consumer-unit work and rectification of unsafe existing wiring. The electrician must confirm the actual scope and suitability.

Exclusions: Gas work, structural alterations, extensive plaster repairs, tiling, flooring, decorating, stone worktops, significant service relocations and unforeseen concealed defects are excluded. Specialist works would need a separate agreed price. The figures are not substitutes for actual subcontractor quotations.

Check the example against working days

The £1,680 cabinet line equates to £420 per day if that part of the work takes four days. Price removal, worktops and finishing against their additional time rather than assuming those jobs are covered by the cabinet line. A plumber's or electrician's attendance does not necessarily free up all of your time for another job.

If the client changes the design, or investigation reveals work outside the agreed scope, record the proposed change, additional cost and effect on the programme before proceeding. Taking longer than expected to carry out work already included in an accepted fixed-price quotation is not, by itself, grounds to increase that price.

7. Turn the Costing Into a Customer Quotation

Your internal calculation can be detailed; the customer document should be straightforward. Include your business and customer details, site address, quote number and issue date, a reference to the approved kitchen drawing, the work you will do, what the customer supplies, line-item prices, exclusions and the total amount payable.

Also record the expected programme, dependencies, quotation validity, payment stages and how changes will be approved. Make the VAT position and any unavoidable charges clear: CMA guidance on pricing transparency emphasises giving consumers clear, complete prices.

Once you have assessed and priced the work, you can use Quote Forge to assemble and save itemised quotations, calculate entered figures and applicable VAT, reuse saved items and download branded PDFs. Send the downloaded quotation through your usual email service.

Fixed quotation or estimate?

A fixed-price quotation offers a defined scope at an agreed price, subject to its lawful terms and any later agreed variations. An estimate is an approximate figure where the final scope or cost is not yet established. Label it clearly and explain what remains to be confirmed. Consumer rights still apply: services must be provided with reasonable care and skill, whatever you call the document.

Where a domestic customer accepts a contract remotely or in their home, check whether distance or off-premises cancellation rules apply before scheduling work or taking payment. This depends on how the contract is made and the type of work; do not assume the same terms fit every job.

Common Questions About Kitchen Fitting Prices

Should I quote by the cabinet, hour or day?

Use cabinet counts and labour days to calculate your internal price. For a fully surveyed installation, a clear job price is often easier for the customer to compare. Agreed hourly or day-work rates can suit exploratory or separately authorised work where the scope cannot yet be fixed.

How should I price a flat-pack or IKEA kitchen?

Allow for unpacking, checking and assembly, not just fitting the completed carcasses. Check the manufacturer's instructions, integrated appliance details and any specialist rail or fixing system. Add packaging removal if you are responsible for it.

What if the customer-supplied kitchen arrives incomplete?

Record the missing items and their effect on the programme. Check your terms and which party was responsible, then agree any extra visit or work before charging for it. Do not charge twice for fitting that was already included.

Can I increase a fixed quote for unexpected work?

Not simply because you underestimated the original work. If genuinely additional work falls outside the agreed scope, explain the issue and seek approval of a priced variation before carrying it out. Your contractual terms and consumer law still matter.

Price the Entire Kitchen, Not Just the Units

A profitable kitchen fitting quote begins with a good survey and ends with a clear scope. Estimate each stage of the installation, cross-check the labour against your own selling rate, secure specialist prices and distinguish customer-supplied items from your supply responsibilities. The aim is a price you can justify and deliver — not a cabinet multiplier that leaves half the job unpaid.